Book 27 The Spy Who Loved My Russian Tea Cakes

The Spy Who
Loved My Russian Tea Cakes by Marilyn Barr fulfilled the category “Book Set
During a Holiday” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. The holiday in the
book is Christmas, with cookie exchanges, family issues, and ugly sweaters
galore. Happy Christmas in July!

Our story starts
with Cassie Morgan trying to live her life free from her condescending relatives.
She’s a Reiki practitioner and works at a nursing home, helping to heal the residents
through spiritual sessions. As the holidays approach and she tries to avoid the
trip home, the local hospital sends over a few overflow patients. One man sets
the female staff into a frenzy, even though he’s in a coma.

Cassie finds
herself in a pickle. The coma patient’s mother asks her to help heal her son.
The woman, Theresa, knows Cassie, with her spiritual healing abilities, will be
able to reach her son. Though she’s only working with consent from his mom,
Cassie reaches out to the man.

What follows is a
whirlwind of hot, erotic scenes as Cassie and Sergei find each other through
dream walking. I’ve never read a romance where the first male point of view
scene is a total scorching love fest. OMG, this book is hawt. Cassie and Sergei
connect immediately. Their story gave me shivers of Bared to You by
Sylvia Day (post coming soon) without the dom/sub issues. Cassie and Sergei had
a spiritual connection—literally.

The story had
other great themes inside it. Family and holidays are hard for some. Cassie
must decide how to use her gifts, be herself, and still fit into her estranged
family. They don’t understand her abilities because it’s not science, but they
still love her very much.

And Sergei’s past—damn.
We only get a shadow of it. He’s a spy, a Russian spy! I want three more books
about his past and five about their future together. (It’s a romance. You know
those two are going to find a Happily Ever After.)

I’ve read a few
amazing authors lately who can tell a 500-page story in about 100. This book
was one of them. The amount of story and heat Ms. Barr packed into this tale
floors me. I need to grovel at her feet for writing lessons.

Check out Ms.
Barr’s website https://www.marilynbarr.com/.
She might give away a prequel to Sergei with a newsletter sign-up.

I give The Spy
Who Loved My Russian Tea Cakes by Marilyn Barr Five Boxes of Delicious
Christmas Cookies.